(Radio Iowa) Officials say three people were injured after a train hit a semi-truck and derailed, in Denison. Tim Zenk is the assistant fire chief for the Denison Fire Department. He says the truck carrying weights for a crane reportedly got hung up on a railroad crossing on Thursday afternoon.

“An eastbound locomotive and train traveling around 65 miles an hour separated the trailer in half,” Zenk said. “We had to get Public Works involved to get some streets shut off and get the traffic out of the area.” Union Pacific confirmed in a written statement that two members of the train crew and the truck driver were all taken to the hospital in Denison after the collision.

Picture from our sister-station KDSN

Crews arrived late Thursday to begin clearing and repairing the tracks. Zenk says up to a thousand feet of railroad tracks may have to be replaced. “They’ll clear all the wrecked material and locomotives, rebuild the lines, and get this thing flowing again,” Zenk said. “The railroad won’t mess around and I would recommend the public try to stay a couple of blocks away from here.” That area includes a pair of railroad crossings just south of Highway 30 in Denison.

A number of rail cars derailed. Union Pacific does not have an estimate on how long repairs are expected to take.